Improvement in tanning compositions



v UNITED STATES J PATENT OFFICE.

' IRA CABLE, OF KINGSTON TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVEMENT lN TANNING COMPOSIT IONS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 17,867, dated July 28, 1857.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, IRA CABLE, of the township of Kingston, Luzerne county, and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and improved mode of making or tanning leather from the hides of animals; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

The nature of my invention consists in tanning leather, as aforesaid, by a process by which the raw hide, after the hair is removed, canbe tanned thoroughly, ready to be dressed with less labor and expense in a period of time much less than is required by any other process now used, and tanning the leather in a much better manner.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the composition to be used, the 1nanner it is to be used, and its operation.

To a vat of the ordinary size you put in fifty sides of cowhidesthat is, the whole of twenty-five skins. In the vat containing the saidfifty sides of cowhides you put in the liquor leached or extracted from two cords and a half of hemlock or oak bark ground. This liquor or extract will cover the hides in the vat. Having prepared the vat with the hides and liquor extracted, as aforesaid, there is to be put in it three pounds of nitric acid and twenty pounds of Glaubers salt. The acids and salt are to be admitted, so as to impregnate thewhole contents of the vat. Having thus prepared the whole thing, for the first twelve hours the hides are to be taken out of the vat and aired once an hour. After the first twelve hours the hides are to be taken out and aired I from hemlock or oak bark, and mix in with it half a pound of nitric acid and four pounds of Glaubers salt. Into this preparation put two calf-skins; Take them out once an hour for the first ten or twelvehours, and thereafter once a day. In seven days they will be thoroughly tanned and ready to be dressed.

The above descriptions show, the proportions to be used in making the composition. The quantity to be used of the composition will depend, of course, upon .the number of hides to be tanned, which can always be regulated by the quantity used, as above, to fifty sides of cowhides.

What I claim as new and desire to secure v by Letters Patent, is

The use of hemlock or oak bark, nitric acid, and Glaub'ers salt, all to be used in one bath for the purpose of tanning leather from hides in a short space of time, as set forth.

1 IRA CABLE. Witnesses:

REUBEN J ONES, CHAS. JACKSON. 

